Smooth flow.

Author

Message

Sylar

Subject: Smooth flow. 23/11/2011, 22:41

Introduction

Smooth flow is a simple concept; it's just the process of getting your weapons to fire in a seamless stream.

Doesn't matter what set you have, how high the lag on this part is, how weak the homing is on this one....what matters is having a strong understanding of not only each part on the set, but how each part functions in conjunction with the others, individually and as a whole.

Re-reading that paragraph, it sounds really cliched to me, so let me clarify a bit. Each part in the game has strengths and weaknesses, and you need to learn those by heart to be able to come up with counter-strategies on the spot, and also to form strategies, combos and techniques for your sets. That's why the longer you use a set, the better it seems to get, regardless of how utterly bad it is.

Take my Anne+Blade, for example: it was created based on a simple concept: firing a gun can reduce or eliminate landing lag. I only put Blade on it so I could spam it while landing to kill the horrendous landing lag Sassy Stunners suffer from. However, even though it was originally just an experiment to learn more about how landing lag reduction works, it turned into a halfway decent set, and as I refined the parts on it and refined my technique, it became quite a formidable set.

The reason it works how it does is because I know enough about the parts to allow them to 'flow' together, giving me an almost constant stream of fire. That's one thing that separates semi pro from pro, and it's something only learned from experience.

For me, I've never looked at the actual reload stats on parts and then crunched numbers to come up with techniques and combos, but rather I experiment and streamline during training or real battles.

You may have heard me talk about 'sliding and bouncing' with Ground legs on Little Sprinters, Shining Fighter, Aerial Beauties and Big Boys. The concept behind that is also a sub concept in 'smooth flow', so I will go into it later. For now, all I'm going to say is that, when done correctly, you will appear to hit the ground, slide to the side a bit as you 'bounce' into the air.

Smooth flow and other related techniques

Now, as I said before, smooth flow isn't exactly a concept that can be taught, because it mostly has to do with developing an understanding of all the parts and how they function together. Because of that, this will be more tip saturated than pure guide.

So, how does one start experimenting with smooth flow, and building an effective base in it? Just start by experimenting with a set you already have a decent understanding of and/or a good amount of experience with; the thing you need to focus on is getting as fast a rate of fire of combined weapons as possible: That doesn't mean spamming your gun; it means getting every weapon to be used almost equally.

What's that?! Sylar says to use every weapon the same?! But--but...I thought everyone always said that some weapons can't be fired as much as others? What if I have a Titan Bomb? How can I use that the same amount as the Splash Gun I'm also running? Well, you can't; I said 'almost' equally. On top of that, what I actually mean is using them all equally, in relative terms. Not just all the same amount, period, end of story, whatever.

For example, if you're using Geo Trap and Blade, you obviously can't fire both of them at the same rate, unless you want to hardly ever fire Blade, effectively nullifying your advantage. However, ideally, you would either know by heart the reload time on the Geo Trap, or you would be watching the reload bar on the touch screen so you know when it's ready to fire again. At that point, you need to quickly and accurately fire it immediately, because that keeps a constant rate of fire, or constant pressure, on your enemy.

The same thing goes for pods. Most pods that I use are single shot, immediate explosion, like Umbrella and Wave, so I can weave them in almost without a second thought. But if you're using something delayed, like Satellite or Spider, you need to position yourself a bit more in order to effectively deploy them. That takes a little bit of skill and timing, in order to have yourself in place when one is ready to deploy, you have to know the timing of their explosions, so you don't end with all your defenses exploding at the same time, allowing the enemy to close in on you unhindered.

One thing I need to clear up is what I mean by 'constant rate of fire'. Obviously, you can't ever be able to continuously fire your weapons, but you can have the weapons themselves exploding while the lag from your weapon is dissipating. That's one more reason why sets utilizing all straight firing weapons are so bad.

Now. Ground Legs. To go back to what I was saying in the introduction, Ground Legs can play a part in smooth flow, assuming you know how to utilize them correctly.

At this point, you're probably thinking "What the hell, Sylar? Utilizing legs? There isn't anything to learn to utilize." Oho....WRONG.

Okay, not completely wrong; what you have to learn to use is the landing time with Ground Legs. For example, if you have Ground Legs, but you hardly ever jump, there's no point in having them.

In my opinion, almost every robo can use Ground Legs well, possibly excluding Sassy Stunners, because they're such freaking weird robos.

The trick to most use of Ground Legs is the land and bounce method I talk about. All it is is landing after coming down from an air dash at an angle, and then keeping the pad pointing in the direction you're going while hitting the jump button again. What this does is make you appear to land, slide on the ground a short distance, and 'bounce' back into the air.

Not only is it satisfying, it also makes it hard for your opponent to predict where you're going, and/or do anything about even if they can predict your movements.

In summary, smooth flow is more something you achieve after weeks of experience, rather than something you'll be consciously training very often.

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~Sylar

Sylar

Subject: Re: Smooth flow. 30/7/2012, 06:41

Why didn't you mofos read this? :'(

Strayofthesun

Subject: Re: Smooth flow. 31/7/2012, 16:45

I read it now lol it's good, and actually gave me an idea for a set I've been trying to make work.

Mega_Rat

Subject: Re: Smooth flow. 3/8/2012, 03:14

If I wasn't so addicted to the sets I use, I'd totally build sets on this concept.

But great read. It was hard enough to make new sets when I started playing with you guys.

Ruigtand

Subject: Re: Smooth flow. 3/8/2012, 13:35

Ialso read it just now and i must say youre quite good at teaching and putting your thoughts into words ! nice job